Information culture of Ghanaian immigrants living in New Zealand

The things we carry: migrants' personal collection management and use

Purpose

This paper explores personal collection management and use in the context of migration. The paper further investigates how migrants use items in personal collections to reflect their self-identity and learn about their heritage.

Design/methodology/approach

Interviews were used to collect data from 14 immigrants in New Zealand.

Findings

Findings show how migrants perceive the value of their personal collections, manage their personal collections during migration and use their personal collections as instruments of identity formation, self-awareness, and connections to cultural heritage.

Originality/value

Insights presented in this study increase an understanding of the critical role personal information plays in the migration and integration process.

Cross-Cultural Communication on Social Media: Review From the Perspective of Cultural Psychology and Neuroscience

Introduction

In recent years, with the popularity of many social media platforms worldwide, the role of “virtual social network platforms” in the field of cross-cultural communication has become increasingly important. Scholars in psychology and neuroscience, and cross-disciplines, are attracted to research on the motivation, mechanisms, and effects of communication on social media across cultures.

Methods and Analysis

This paper collects the co-citation of keywords in “cultural psychology,” “cross-culture communication,” “neuroscience,” and “social media” from the database of web of science and analyzes the hotspots of the literature in word cloud.

Results

Based on our inclusion criteria, 85 relevant studies were extracted from a database of 842 papers. There were 44 articles on cultural communication on social media, of which 26 were from the perspective of psychology and five from the perspective of neuroscience. There are 27 articles that focus on the integration of psychology and neuroscience, but only a few are related to cross-cultural communication on social media.

Conclusion

Scholars have mainly studied the reasons and implications of cultural communication on social media from the perspectives of cultural psychology and neuroscience separately. Keywords “culture” and “social media” generate more links in the hot map, and a large number of keywords of cultural psychology and neuroscience also gather in the hot map, which reflects the trend of integration in academic research. While cultural characteristics have changed with the development of new media and virtual communities, more research is needed to integrate the disciplines of culture, psychology, and neuroscience.

Informational features of WhatsApp in everyday life in Madrid: An exploratory study

WhatsApp is one of the most used social media tools, but little is known about its use for everyday purposes. In this study, the informational features of WhatsApp in everyday life in Madrid are analysed through 30 semi-structured interviews, resulting in an informational typology of the messages, a description of the informational purposes of WhatsApp use and descriptions of the social use of WhatsApp. We conclude that WhatsApp allows us to deepen our understanding of the informational habits of people in everyday life.

Cultural information needs of long-settled immigrants, their descendants and family members: use of collective and personal information sources about the home country

Purpose

This paper presents findings from a study that explored why and how long-settled immigrants, their descendants and family members seek and use information about their country of origin and how they manage personal information about their cultural heritage legacy.

Design/methodology/approach

15 semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants from the Croatian community in New Zealand.

Findings

The main findings reveal two categories of information needs related to a home country: internally motivated and externally motivated. Information is accessed through a network of family and friends, cultural societies and embassies. These information sources are perceived as reliable and trustworthy, and able to offer an interpretation of information along with access to information. The findings highlight the value of personal collections as information sources and the impact of personal information management practices on preserving and sharing information about one's cultural heritage.

Originality/value

This article contributes to the discussion about information needs and practices of immigrant communities by offering arguments that focus on (1) long-settled immigrants, their descendants and family members, and (2) seeking information about home country culture and heritage, and (3) the role of personal collections and personal information management in maintaining personal cultural heritage. The results of this study may be of use to libraries, archives and museums in designing and offering their services to expatriates of their country and immigrants in their country, and to the wider information management sector developing services in personal information management.